New Products

Antelope Audio’s Discrete 4 and Discrete 8 Microphone Preamp Interface brings a new level of flexibility, power and sonic excellence to engineers and music producers. The Discrete 4 Microphone Preamp comes with four console-grade, 6-transistor discrete preamps, while the Discrete 8 features eight console-grade, 6-transistor discrete preamps. Both offer 121dB dynamic range conversion and rock-solid clocking. Both units offer Accusonic 3D microphone and preamp models, guitar amps, transformer and tube FX, and a huge selection of classic vintage gear, all of which are now accessible in the DAW via the new AFX2DAW plug-in.

PROPELLERHEAD REASON 10 PRODUCTION SOFTWARENew Sounds Abound in Major Upgrade

Propellerhead Software Reason 10 ($129 upgrade, $449 new) offers a bevy of new sounds including the Europa Shapeshifting Synthesizer and the Grain Sample Manipulator. Europa is a dynamically generated wavetable synthesizer while Grain opens up the world of granular synthesis for Reason users. Reason 10 also includes three new sampled instrument collections created in collaboration with Soundiron. Klang Tuned Percussion includes 10 high-quality sampled melodic percussion instruments. Pangea World Instruments (includes 11 instruments) adds a unique flavor to any genre of music. And Humana Vocal Ensemble is a collection of choirs and solo vocals.

The newly redesigned 828s interface from MOTU ($995) features ESS Sabre32 Ultra DAC technology, a new front panel design, and 60 total channels of I/O, offering 48-channel mixing and 32-bit floating point DSP effects processing. The 828es connects to a Mac, PC or iOS device over Thunderbolt or USB. New control room features include a built-in talkback mic with front panel “talk” button and “A/B” monitor select, mute and sum-to-mono buttons for the main outs. Additional I/O includes eight balanced (TRS) analog in/out (with DC-coupled outputs), separate main outs on XLR jacks, two banks of 8-channel optical I/O (switchable to stereo TOSLink), RCA S/PDIF digital I/O and two independent front panel headphone jacks with volume controls.

BITWIG STUDIO 2.2Improvements Include Expanded Sound Content

Bitwig Studio 2.2 ($169 upgrade, $399 new) offers multiple ways to integrate with other technology, including MIDI, MIDI Clock Master/Slave, MTC, CV & Gate and hardware audio clock. Additionally, Ableton Link enables musicians to play in sync together across various software applications, platforms and mobile devices. Other features include Time Shift Device for fine-grained time adjustments anywhere in the device chain, four new modulator devices and Polynom, allowing users to feed modulation signals into a mathematical formula to achieve sophisticated and flexible transformations. Added sound content includes a Bösendorfer grand piano. Farfisa Syntorchestra, Philicorda and the very rare model VOX Continental Baroque.

The FaderPort 16 Mix Production Controller from PreSonus ($999.95) connects via USB 2.0 to provide precise tactile control over any DAW’s mix and automation functions, including complete transport control. Features include full level, solo and mute control over 16 channels at once, with 16 touch-sensitive, motorized, 100mm faders, and 89 buttons covering 102 different functions. The Session Navigator provides easy access to eight mission-critical functions for maximum flexibility. No driver installation is necessary.

The WL-3 Channel Strip ($1,199), designed in conjunction with Paul Wolff offers a transformer-coupled microphone and line input, transformer-coupled output, 60mm fader, a compressor, 3-band EQ with sweepable mids, and 80Hz high-pass filter. The VCA compressor features threshold, auto gain makeup, gain, and a mix knob for instant parallel compression. The preamp offers 65 dB of gain and features switchable phantom power and a polarity reverse switch.

The new WaveLab Pro 9.5 ($579.99) and Elements 9.5 ($99.99) focus on spectral editing, offering an overhauled Spectogram with many additional display settings that give a meticulous attention to frequency detail. Both introduce RestoreRig, a new plug-in suite that boasts three modules: DeNoiser, DeBuzzer and DeClicker. With its restoration toolset, RestoreRig detects and removes unwanted noise and audio artifacts in real time. New features exclusive to WaveLab Pro 9.5 include the Wavelet display that analyzes and displays musical content based on pitch scaling. The Spectrum Editor comes with many new selection tools and the implementation of the Audio Inpainting technology for removing unwanted noise from any audio material and then filling in the omission by analyzing the adjacent spectral information. New Sound Reinforcement Products

Allen & Heath’s new SQ Series Digital Mixers (prices start at $2,999), featuring the company’s 96kHz XCVI FPGA engine, are designed for a wide range of applications. Features include a capacitive touchscreen, illuminated rotary controls and softkeys with custom naming on fader strips. Two models offer a choice of size and control configuration. The rack-mountable SQ-5 has 16 onboard preamps, 17 faders and eight softkeys, while the SQ-6 provides 24 preamps, 25 faders, four assignable rotary controls and 16 softkeys. Both feature a networking slot for optional Dante, Waves and other cards.

LECTROSONICS SMWB AND SMDWB WIDEBAND TRANSMITTERSInnovative Features Including Recording to SD Card

Lectrosonics’ “wide band” SMWB ($2,060) and SMDWB ($2,150) transmitters include the ability to act as a transmitter or as a body-worn recorder, to go with wideband tuning. The units come in several frequency ranges: A1 (470 – 537 MHz) and B1 (537 – 614 MHz) for the North American and export markets, and B2 (563 – 640 MHz) and C1 (614 – 691 MHz) for certain export markets. The SMWB and SMDWB units can be configured either as a transmitter or a recorder, with files stored on Micro SD card memory. Audio files are recorded in the industry standard Broadcast Wave (.WAV) format at 24 bits, 44.1kHz sample rate.

NEXO NXAMP MK2 AMPLIFIERSNetwork Operation Plus Touchscreen Control

Yamaha Professional Audio has announced the release of the NXAMP4x2 MK2 and NXAMP4x1 MK2 amplifier models ($TBA). Both units come in a light, sleek 2U package with front-panel touchscreen control offering direct access to parameters including Array EQ, Mute and Meters, EQ Detail, User EQ, Inputs, Load Monitoring, Log, and much more. A native, dual Ethernet port brings seamless integration with NEXO proprietary NeMo system management software. Amplifiers can be remote-controlled and daisy-chained via a standard Remote Control card, with optional Dante, EtherSound and AES/EBU network cards available.

The AVN-PXH12 simultaneously monitors and mixes up to 24 AES67 AoIP sources in a compact 1U rack to a speaker/headphone combination. Used for OB truck monitoring or confidence monitoring of an AoIP installation, the AVN-PXH12 features front-panel Mute and Solo across one channel, or a handful of channels, ‘Normal’ and ‘Alternate’ input switching, speaker mute, plus busing to headphone left ear, right ear, or a stereo mix. Other features include ¼-inch and 3.5mm headphone outputs, a speaker output with separate LS and HP volume controls, 10 GPIO ports, dual AC/DC power supply, and a speaker mute button.